The use of electrical outlet boxes for housing electrical devices and connecting wires is well known in the art. In new construction, the boxes are typically attached to wall studs using screws or nails prior to placement of the wall on the studs. Conventional fasteners may be used in these situations to mount the boxes to the wall studs. In many cases, the outlet boxes include tabs or apertures for mounting the boxes. However, when electrical boxes are installed in existing walls, such as when renovating or remodeling, the wall studs are not always readily accessible or in the desired location to permit easy installation of the electrical boxes. These situations require the use of “cut-in” or “old work” electrical boxes, which do not have to be attached to a stud or support member.
“Cut-in” or “old work” boxes, are used where the boxes are inserted into an opening cut into the wall. The boxes are specifically constructed to include clamping hardware, which enables the box to be clamped to the wall about the opening without regard to the location of the wall studs. These cut-in or old work boxes have a variety of designs and many of them use a bracket or similar type of mounting hardware to secure the box to the wall.
“Cut-in” or “old work” boxes generally take two forms. The first includes boxes having swing-out clips. Examples of boxes of this type are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,332,330, 2,299,696, 2,272,846 and 1,957,844. The boxes shown in these patents include adjustable clips mounted on each box side wall. The clips are initially positioned inside the outer perimeter of the box so that the box may be inserted into an opening in the wall which is sized to specifically accommodate the box. After the clips pass through the opening, they may be swung outwardly to engage the back surface of the wall. These swing-out clips, however, are difficult to manipulate in the tight environment in which these boxes must be installed. Further, the box must include passageways or slots through the side wall of the box to enable the clip to swing out from an internal position to an external position once the box is inserted through the wall opening. As may be appreciated, boxes having swing-out clips of this type require extensive fabrication and/or modification of an existing box structure. Due to such extensive modification, many of these types of cut-in boxes are not listed by agencies such as Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and Canadian Standards Association (CSA).
Another type of cut-in box includes those boxes which have clips and screws mounted on the exterior surface of the side walls or the top and bottom walls of the box. Examples of boxes of this type are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,867,344, 2,801,019, 1,957,003 and 1,775,665. As the clips shown in these patents are mounted exteriorly of the box, they present a wide profile which requires a larger hole to be cut through the wall into which the box is to be mounted. Such a large opening may require extensive wall repair after the box is installed or must be used with a large cover plate to cover the opening.
Also, many of these boxes include complicated wall engaging mounting structures. Compression devices, toggle clips, snaps and the like such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,120,473, 4,120,416, 2,776,774, 2,870,931 and 2,769,562 may also be used to secure the box to the wall. However many of these structures are difficult for the installer to easily operate.
Common to all of the above described boxes, is the fact that the boxes must be prefabricated or specifically modified to accommodate particular mounting hardware. This necessitates the installer carrying boxes which are specifically manufactured solely for old work or cut-in applications in addition to boxes for other applications.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a mounting bracket which allows for the use of a standard electrical box in old work or cut-in applications.